President Prabowo Subianto's Foreign Antek Retorics Could Trigger Public Anger

JAKARTA The foreign quartic narrative that President Prabowo Subianto continues to use is considered dangerous because it dwarfs the people's struggle.

The narrative about a foreign group riding a demonstration over the past week spread on social media. One of those who said this was the former Head of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) AM Hendropriyono admitted that he knew there was foreign interference behind the riots in the demonstration last August 28. He said the foreign party had a big influence on his country.

President Prabowo's recent narrative of foreignatures was also spoken recently, to be precise when giving directions at the briefing of teachers and public principals at the Jakarta International Expo, Central Jakarta, August 22.

In his speech in front of 2,296 teachers and 155 school principals, Prabowo claimed his cabinet had shown results even though he had only been working for 300 days. However, he reminded that there are still parties who are not happy with Indonesia's revival.

I said they realized they were foreign agents. They don't like Indonesia rising. But we will rise with Indonesia! " said Prabowo.

Prabowo has been retoricizing foreign agents recorded for a long time. He used the narrative quite often in various speeches, interviews, and events. The trail has been recorded at least since the 2014 Presidential Election (Pilpres), to criticize government and media officials.

The man who once served as Commander General of the Special Forces Command (Kopassus) accused him of foreign intervention in the 2014 presidential election.

Certain foreign countries invite regents, mayors, and try to influence them. We consider this a foreign intervention. Imagine the elections of the Republic of Indonesia, foreign countries also influenced it," Prabowo said during a trial on the dispute over the results of the presidential election at the Constitutional Court (MK) in August 2014.

The term foreign agent was again used by Prabowo in the 2019 presidential election. He criticized the state situation which was then led by Joko Widodo and Jusuf Kalla. The retired general said that there were still foreign parties who wanted to control Indonesia even though this country was already independent. Indonesia is independent to be sovereign, not to become a foreignature," he said on September 22, 2018.

But when Prabowo became a minister in Jokowi's cabinet, the narrative of foreign gangs began to shift. He no longer attached the narrative of foreign agents to the government, but to critical groups.

The narrative of foreign shirts he used during a speech at an event at the Ministry of Defense in November 2023. He said that the conflict on Pulau Rempang, Riau Islands had foreign intelligence interference.

"We received reports from various sources that the incident in Rempang had begun to emerge from foreign intelligence," he said.

Then during the campaign Prabowo accused the party who criticized Jokowi of being a foreignature. "President Joko Widodo is currently there, I think this is probably the possibility of these foreign footballers. Pak Jokowi is being slandered continuously," Prabowo said at the Delta Sports Center, Sidoarjo, East Java, February 9, 2024.

After being sworn in as president on October 20, 2024, Prabowo intensively used foreignatures for the group that criticized him. He embeds the rhetoric of foreign earlets to students, non-governmental institutions, or other critical groups.

One of them was when he Prabowo gave a mandate on the Birthday of Pancasila at the Pancasila Building on June 2.

"Hundreds of years they have been fighting against us until now. With money, they finance NGOs to pit us against each other. They are said to be enforcers of human rights democracy, the freedom of the press even though it is their own version," said Prabowo.

Political observer sebagis Direktur Eksekutif Indonesia Publik Institute (IPI) Karyono Wibowo menilai narasi ganton as terlontar karena didorong rasa nationalism yang tinggi, sehingga membentuk cara berpikir, paradigm anti asing.

For Prabowo, said Karyono, foreigners are threats from outside that want to destroy or weaken a country, disrupt the stability of security, political stability, and integrity of the nation.

In his notes, the former Minister of Defense often used the narrative of foreign agents before becoming president. But now, after serving as president, he suggested that Prabowo should be more careful with what he said.

"Don't be a little bit of a foreignature, a foreign interest. You have to be more careful, more proportional. Don't say all the problems are ridden by foreigners or foreign interests," said Karyono when contacted by VOI.

Regarding the demonstrations that were said to be foreign parties involved, Karyono assessed that President Prabowo should have introspected what was the cause of demonstrations in various circles.

"Many policies are not pro-people and the behavior of state administrators which are judged by the public is not appropriate in the midst of Indonesia's unfavorable situation and conditions," he continued.

In the multipolar world, Karyono does not rule out the possibility of foreign interests towards a country. However, this narrative must be conveyed carefully and not always looking for goat hiyam in all problems.

Allegations of foreign footballs must be clearly stated with valid data support. If this narrative continues, especially in the midst of demonstrations, it is feared that it will cause anger from groups accused of being foreign agents.

"Don't just throw the statement of foreign drones, this is confusing and can make civil society angry. If the state can prove it, then just arrest it, if it is true that the goal is to overthrow the legitimate government," said Karyono.

Contacted separately, political communication analyst and founder of the KedaiKOPI survey institute Hendri Satrio assessed the rhetoric of foreign agents used by President Prabowo Subianto to thwart foreign groups that really wanted to interfere with the integrity of the country.

"Maybe he (Prabowo) knew from intelligence that there was a foreignature riding the demo," he said.

"The impact he expects from the frequentity he says that is so that people unite and have Indonesia, so that if there are foreign footballers who want to disturb us, they fail, because this is the goal for Indonesian unity," concluded the man who is familiarly called Hensa.